The inventive concept relates to flash memory systems, and more particularly, to flash memory systems including a memory controller capable of controlling access to data stored in a flash memory array in response to temperature information.
Depending on the demand for high integration, flash memory systems have been scaled down and the number of bits stored in each memory cell has been increased. In addition, the amount of data that processed by a flash memory device and a flash memory system has been increased. Accordingly, reliability in the operation of the flash memory device or flash memory system has become increasing important.
Semiconductor memory devices may be classified as volatile (e.g., DRAM and SRAM) and nonvolatile (e.g., EEPROM, FRAM, PRAM, MRAM, and flash memory). A volatile memory device loses stored data in the absence of applied power, while a nonvolatile memory devices maintains stored data in the absence of applied power. In particular, flash memory devices have shown particular merit, such as high programming speeds, low power consumption, and high data storage capacity. As such, flash memory devices are widely used as a storage medium in various computing systems.
In contemporary flash memory devices, data states for each memory cell may be determined according to a number stored bits. Thus, a memory cell storing 1-bit data is referred to as a single-bit cell or a single-level cell (SLC), and a memory cell storing multi-bit data (e.g., two or more bits) is referred to as a multi-bit cell, a multi-level cell (MLC), or a multi-state cell.